They parked their cars on the shoulder of the highway, causing traffic jams. They invade private property. They littered the woods with broken sleds, fast-food wrappers and soda cans.
In the Sierra mountain towns, locals disdainfully refer to these tourists as “skiers.” Some leaders in rural Alpine County south of Lake Tahoe are fed up, too.
“We have to do something about this,” Alpine County Supervisor Terry Woodrow said at a meeting after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend last month. “Many skiers are new to the village and are disrespecting our property, trespassing on county and private property, and leaving trash and trash behind.”
Friends can go sledding at Hell’s Kitchen Overlook, an overlook near Bear Valley that is not suitable for snow play due to hazards such as rocks and trees. (Louis Bryant III/Science Fiction Chronicle)
Throughout the winter, weekenders from the Bay Area and the Central Valley hit the mountains to sled, build snowmen and have fun in the winter’s frozen playgrounds. But when designated snow parks fill up, visitors gather at roadside viewpoints or park in open spaces on highway shoulders or on hillsides and play there, often leaving a mess behind. These problems may be especially pronounced during this drier-than-usual season, when there is less snow on the ground and visitors are concentrated in fewer places.
Woodrow described chaotic conditions at extraction points and snow play areas near Bear Valley Ski Area along Highway 4. She said hundreds of cars were parked haphazardly on the side of the road over the holiday weekend. On at least one occasion, a driver waited for a tow truck to remove an illegally parked car and then parked it in the vacated spot, she said.
Woodrow said local law enforcement officials issued dozens of parking tickets at just one snow play location along Highway 4. Woodrow did not respond to The Chronicle’s inquiries for this article.
“They’re just playing on your private property and you can’t get them to leave,” Woodrow said of the skiers. She said the large number of out-of-towners grabbing parking spaces means “we are being held hostage in the community.”
‘Like Truckee 30 years ago’
With just over 1,200 residents, Alpine County is the least populous county in California. The county seat of Markleyville has little downtown apart from taverns, restaurants, and hotels.
But the area is rich in mountain scenery and offers a variety of outdoor recreational activities, including downhill skiing in Bear Valley and Kirkwood, a valley. County Supervisor Evan Mecak said he believes Alpine has the potential to become Northern California’s next tourist destination.
“This is like Truckee 30 years ago,” Meckak told the Chronicle. “It’s incredible and people are just learning about it.”
Meckak said the county needs visitors. “But we don’t want people leaving trash and broken sleds on the side of the road or endangering others while doing so.”
A roadside parking lot on Highway 4 near Round Valley and Lake Alpine Sno-Parks in Alpine County was filled with cars from visiting families. (Louis Bryant III/Science Fiction Chronicle)
For Californians who don’t ski or live above the snowline, finding safe, affordable and legal places to play in the snow can be difficult. The state collectively manages 18 ski parks along rural mountain roads between the Northern Sierra and Fresno County, areas dedicated to sledding, snowshoeing and low-level recreation. But they are often overwhelmed on weekends, which can lead to the kinds of problems plaguing Alpine County. Additionally, authorities say many visitors are unaware they must purchase a $15 ski park permit before arriving at designated stores or online, and violations abound.
When snow park sites reach saturation, families who may have to drive several hours to enjoy the snow have to look elsewhere. In some places they will find privately operated sledding slopes for a fee. But often it seems like the most practical option is to pull over and play on the side of the road.
Ruth Loehr, public information officer for the California Highway Patrol’s South Lake Tahoe District, which includes Alpine County, said areas where skiers gather can quickly become chaotic anyway.
“There’s a lot of lawlessness,” Lohr said. “If no one is watching, no one is going to follow the rules or do what they’re supposed to do.”
It’s not just trash, feces and illegal parking, she said. Lohr said concussions, broken limbs and some horrific accidents have occurred in recent years at her unofficial sledding hill, including a collision that killed one person and paralyzed another.
In January, the shoulder of Highway 4 near Bear Valley was filled with parked vehicles and tourists playing on the roadside slopes near Alpine Lake and Round Valley Ski Park. (Louis Bryant III/Science Fiction Chronicle)
Small play space
Some locals in Calaveras and Alpine counties believe problems with snow play areas along the Highway 4 corridor may be more pronounced this winter due to low snowfall and warm temperatures. The snow line is higher, so snow chasers have fewer places to go.
However, Supervisor Woodrow made it clear in a recent address to the Board of Supervisors that skier behavior is an ongoing headache in her district.
“I say this every year, but you have to take it seriously,” she told the board.
The board directed county staff to draft a list of possible enforcement measures, with new rules and restrictions that could be implemented next winter. Supervisors floated several ideas: more enforcement patrols, fines for bad behavior, higher parking ticket fees, resident-only parking permits, metered parking.
“We’re open to any proposal that would help the community,” Alpine County Sheriff’s Deputy Tyler Green told The Chronicle.
He said the chaos of the Martin Luther King weekend was “eye-opening.” “This is obviously a bigger problem than it has historically been, so how do we address this in the future? We want to be fair to everyone.”
At the meeting, Supervisor Mekkak offered a tongue-in-cheek solution to skiers’ troublesome behavior, starting with charging hefty fees for illegal parking: “A $2,000 entrance fee would probably change that behavior pretty quickly, and I would definitely be in favor of a $2,000 fine for something like that.”
This article was originally published on ‘We’re being held hostage’: Snow tourists push a rural California county to the brink.